All Episodes
Displaying 1 - 20 of 24 in total
Beyond Intelligence: GPT-5, Explainability and the Ethics of AI Reasoning (E.24)
What happens when AI stops generating answers and starts deciding what’s true?In this episode of Free Form AI, Michael Berk and Ben Wilson dive into GPT-5’s growing ro...
The Cost of Complexity: Why Simplicity Wins in Software Development (E.23)
How to fight complexity creep and build software that stays simple, even as it grows.Every engineer knows the struggle: a simple system slowly buried under complexity....
Competence, Trust and Ethical Client Engagement: Applying Military Strategies to Consulting (E.22)
In this episode of Free Form AI, Michael and Ben draw surprising parallels between military strategy and consulting practice. They break down how principles like compe...
Knowledge Sharing, Culture and the Future of Cloud + AI (E.21)
Passion for the product, not compensation, is what keeps the best engineers engaged.In this episode of Free Form AI, Michael and Ben sit down with Aleksandr Patrushev,...
Solution Accelerators: Balancing Production Software and Durability in AI Development (E.20)
Behind every robust AI system is a solution accelerator that makes complex development smarter.In this episode of Free Form AI, Michael and Ben dive into the role of s...
Data Annotation to Auto-Optimization: How Agents and Human Oversight Shape AI's Future (E.19)
In this episode of Free Form AI, Michael and Ben explore the evolution of prompt engineering and the rise of auto-optimization in AI. We discuss how agents can execute...
Automating Intelligence: Data Collection, Human Feedback and the Future of Context-Augmented Agents (E.18)
In this episode of Free Form AI, we sit down with Tomu Hirata (Databricks), whose journey from medicine to software engineering offers a unique lens on building AI sys...
Problem Solving Under Pressure: Lessons in Fundamentals, Failure, and Finding the Fix (E.17)
In this episode of Free Form AI, we go behind the scenes with co-host Ben Wilson to explore how his early experiences in the Navy shaped his approach to engineering, r...
Beyond Benchmarks: How GPT-5 and OSS Are Redefining AI Evaluation (E.16)
Behind every major leap in AI is a wave of experimentation. And GPT-5 is no exception.In this episode of Free Form AI, Michael and Ben unpack what makes the latest gen...
Libraries, Law and LLMs: How Unconventional Paths Are Shaping the Future of AI (E.15)
In this episode of Free Form AI, we sit down with Lara Rachidi and Maria Zervou, two AI professionals whose paths defy the traditional tech blueprint.Lara began her ca...
GenAI, Agency and Infrastructure: What’s Actually Holding Back the AI Frontier (E.14)
In this episode of Free Form AI, we sit down with Puneet Jain, Senior Applied AI Engineer at Databricks, to explore what’s really holding back GenAI from reaching prod...
From Career Pivots to AI Innovation: Lessons in Building Better Systems (E.13)
In this episode of Free Form AI, we sit down with Mary Moore-Simmons, VP of Engineering at Kibo (formerly GitHub), to explore how career pivots, leadership, and AI are...
How AI Assistants Are Changing Coding (E.12)
In this episode of Free Form AI, we explore how AI coding assistants are reshaping the development workflow. From spotting bugs that slip past human review to writing ...
LATAM Engineers vs. Offshore Norms: Gino Ferrand on Hiring Right (E.11)
In this episode of Free Form AI, Michael sits down with Gino Ferrand, CEO of Tecla, to explore how traditional tech hiring misses the mark, especially when it comes to...
10 - Case Study: AI Video Recommender
In this episode, Michael and Ben discuss the intricacies of building a video clipping service and recommendation engine. They explore the challenges of defining intere...
9 - AI Career Leveling
In this episode, Michael Berk and Ben Wilson discuss the various levels of a data science career, from internships to senior leadership roles. They explore the expecta...
8 - Microservices with Mark Fussell
In this episode, Michael and Ben speak with Mark Fussell, CEO of Diagrid, about Dapr, a runtime for building distributed applications. Mark shares insights on the chal...
7 - What are the best AI Software Packages
In this episode, Michael and Ben explore the world of open source projects in AI, focusing on MLflow and its various flavors. They discuss popular machine learning lib...
6 - When Should You Bail
In this episode, Michael and Ben discuss the challenges of decision-making in software engineering, particularly focusing on the sunk cost fallacy, emotional attachmen...
5 - How to Lead Engineers with Ben Johnson
In this episode, Michael Berk and Ben Johnson discuss the essential traits of effective engineering leadership, the importance of customer-centric software development...